Emerging media from the borderlands of Jewish identity

An In-Between Genre

David Ofek’s films are out of the ordinarybecause he employs an in-between genre (part documentary, part story), to narrate an account. In both of his films (Home and The Tale of Nicolai and the Law of Return), the director/screenwriter chronicles relationships within families and gives the audience the sense that they are watching a documentary by his use of down-to-earth filming and diction. But in actuality, Ofek scripted out every scene before filming the stories he attempts to reiterate “just as [they] really happened.” And what’s more, many of the characters are played by the “real” people, that is, the people whose stories he wants to tell.

“In almost every fiction film I do, there are a lot of documentary elements. And in almost every documentary I do, there are staged scenes” remarks Ofek in an interview. In Home (which precedes Nicolai at the SFJFF screening), the director offers an 18-minute glimpse into an Iraqi-Israeli family who are held housebound by bomb threats. Ofek appears as himself in the film, as does his grandmother, herself. “The scenes between her and I are almost documentary and are based on what I assume she will say in such a situation. I think this was the first time I did this sort of part-documentary using real characters. And it has worked really well since then,” Ofek comments. And the same medium of communication lends itself to Nicolai, a longer film that chronicles a Romanian man’s immigration to Israel, first as a stranger and second as a Jew.

Initially, it’s not at all obvious that Home is scripted. It is surprising that Ofek doesn’t describe or explain his narrative choice because a briefing would definitely change the viewer’s relationship to the characters. When the viewer becomes aware that his films are scripted, his films may seem disingenuous at first. Some might feel they were led on to believe that the events really happened and were left unaltered, and were merely crystallized by a video camera. But then comes the realization that no story can be completely truthful. Whether writing an autobiography, recounting one’s day over the telephone, or producing a documentary, every “true story” is bent and abstracted by the single viewpoint it’s repeated from. Every narrative is reflected by only a single outlook; when someone walks toward one person, they move away from another. And Ofek’s films remind us that every retold moment is distorted, and this awareness is in fact the most truthful method of listening to any story.

HALF-REMEMBERED STORIES

In July 2010, we will be rolling out a multi-media exhibition about lost people, lost places, and the quest to reclaim lost memory. In preparation for this exhibit, we've invited 16 young Jews, ages 15 to 25, to blog.